JUBA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Thursday signed an agreement with South Sudan's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to help boost food production in rural areas across the country.
Mohammed Abchir, the UNDP resident representative in South Sudan, said that the six-year Rural Enterprises for Agricultural Development project to be funded to the tune of 17 million U.S. dollars is an initiative that signals collective achievement and better outcomes in food production.
"This is an excellent partnership, if we achieve our results, we will forget about the pain. What we will remember is the smile on the face of those people who are going to benefit from this initiative," Abchir said during the signing ceremony in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
Abchir said the project targets approximately 27,511 individuals in 162,315 rural households across the country.
"We are all committed to join hands and make sure the implementation starts quickly, UNDP is committed and of course, we will continue as much as possible to advocate and see maybe how additional resources will come in," he disclosed.
Josephine Lagu, the minister of Agriculture and Food Security, said the implementation of the Rural Enterprises for Agricultural Development initiative will benefit other ongoing agriculture development projects in the country.
"This project is going to enable our rural producers, those engaged in crop production, livestock, poultry, fisheries and those engaged in various other trades across the country to have the opportunity for their capacity to be built so that they can do whatever they are engaging in better," Lagu said.
She added that the project will also ease access to finances for rural agriculture producers to increase production.
"Our people are consuming foodstuff coming from neighboring countries, but we have resources to start producing so that we can feed ourselves so that our people can earn decent wages and have decent livelihoods for themselves and their families," Lagu said.
The Rural Enterprises for Agricultural Development initiative, which will be implemented in six states of Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Upper Nile, and Jonglei, is aimed at improving food security, income and resilience among the targeted rural households, and also seeks to empower rural producer organizations to become sustainable and resilient value chain players.
